I'm keeping our timeline here, partly because it is so long and I want to make sure I remember all of this later to tell our sweet girl. And also, for any of you thinking about adoption, just so you can get an idea of how our journey has been. I know I loved reading and seeing other adoptive parents' timelines to encourage us in our wait.
Sept 2011-After much discussion, we finally decided to choose international adoption vs. domestic adoption, based off of experiences many of our friends had with both types and with our lack of "connection" to a domestic agency in our state.
Oct. 2011-Researched many countries, programs and agencies, found out many we had been excited about we didn't qualify for because of age, income, kids, etc, so we went back to square one.
Nov. 2011-Saw a news show about the many orphans of India and felt immediately called to chose the lovely country as the birth country of our child. Called many MANY agencies only to find out most no longer worked with India, or wouldn't work with us because we did not have Indian Heritage.
Dec. 2011-Through a twist of events, a newsletter from an old agency we had spoken with months before lead us to a Pinterest page they had, that HAPPEN to be linked to the Pinterest page of an old high school friend of Michelle's-out of curiosity, Michelle checked out her friend's page and that featured a "pin" of the orphanage in India. Later that month, ANOTHER friend's church went to that same orphanage and Michelle got to see even more photos of the kids and learned about the orphanage and the wonderful people there and fell completely in love with it. Learning about the orphanage opened our eyes to special needs and we researched different special needs we felt we could parent well.
Dec-Feb We prayed hard, went through our budget, and researched JOH as was recommended by other non Indian Heritage families who had adopted special needs children from India as one of the best agencies to team with. And we prayed hard and read every adoption book and blog we could find. We decided JOH was for us.
May 2012- Began our homestudy with Catholic Charities
June 2012-Began our document gathering for dossier
August 2012-Submitted our I800-A application
October 2012-submitted our completely homestudy to JOH for review
January 7, 2013-Homestudy is approved!
January 28, 2013-Received copies of our homestudy and started applying for grants.
March 13, 2013 -USCIS fingerprinting
March 15, 2013-Registration with CARA *WE CAN NOW GET MATCHED!
March 16, 2013-1800-A approval!
April 2013-Submit our dossier to JOH
June 2013-Because of changes in India adoption, the courts shut down for awhile and JOH closes their India program. We transfer over to America World (AWAA) and thankfully don't loose much time or money in the transfer process.
June 2014-We lose our first match
*Lots of updates in between. Two lost referrals that didnt' get approval form CARA either for birth order or accidental missidentifying (the twins, we had been matched to one, but CARA wouldn't allow us both because of family size so we lost that) One turned down referral because of health issues that could not be managed and the child would die from them) April 2013 to December 2014 were hard months*
April 28, 2015 -WE GOT REFERRAL CALL! AND ALREADY GOT CARA MATCH APPROVAL WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 5, 2015 -started our I-800 application and applying for grants.
May 7, 2015 USCIS received/started processing our I 800 application
May 14, 2015 I-800 provisional APPROVAL for our girl!
June 25,2015 WE GOT ARTICLE 5!!!
Still Left To Do:
June 2013-Because of changes in India adoption, the courts shut down for awhile and JOH closes their India program. We transfer over to America World (AWAA) and thankfully don't loose much time or money in the transfer process.
June 2014-We lose our first match
*Lots of updates in between. Two lost referrals that didnt' get approval form CARA either for birth order or accidental missidentifying (the twins, we had been matched to one, but CARA wouldn't allow us both because of family size so we lost that) One turned down referral because of health issues that could not be managed and the child would die from them) April 2013 to December 2014 were hard months*
April 28, 2015 -WE GOT REFERRAL CALL! AND ALREADY GOT CARA MATCH APPROVAL WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 5, 2015 -started our I-800 application and applying for grants.
May 7, 2015 USCIS received/started processing our I 800 application
May 14, 2015 I-800 provisional APPROVAL for our girl!
June 25,2015 WE GOT ARTICLE 5!!!
Still Left To Do:
NOC-Travel Approval!
Court/Guardianship
Travel to be united with our Princess!
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